CNA Requirements in Minnesota: 75-Hour Training

How to become a CNA in Minnesota: a 75-hour state training minimum, the Headmaster competency exam — verified from Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), Health Regulation Division.

Source-verified

Requirements below are drawn from Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), Health Regulation Division — Nurse Aide Registry. MDH operates the registry itself; the competency examination is run by a contractor MDH selected: 'MDH selected D&SDT-Headmaster as the test contractor for placement on the Minnesota Nurse Aide Registry. Testing on the Headmaster platform began on Feb. 1, 2022.' The authority to contract is statutory — 'The commissioner of health may contract with outside parties for the purpose of implementing the provisions of this section' (Minn. Stat. 144A.61, subd. 1). (official site) and last verified August 16, 2026. Boards change fees and rules often — confirm before acting.

Requirements at a glance

What the credential is: MINNESOTA DOES NOT ISSUE A NURSE AIDE LICENCE. It LISTS you on a state-run registry and gives you a certificate number. MDH's own description: 'The Nurse Aide Registry lists nurse aides who have met Minnesota training and/or testing standards to work in nursing homes and certified boarding care homes. The registry also has information about nurse aides who have substantiated findings of abuse, neglect, and theft. This is an online registry. Nurse aides, employers, and others can check the registry by using the Minnesota Department of Health's (MDH) online system and the nurse aide's certificate number.' The state-linked candidate handbook adds what the registry does: 'The Minnesota Nurse Aide Registry registers qualified nurse aides to work in long-term care facilities, maintains information about nurse aides who have substantiated findings of abuse, neglect, and misappropriation of property, and approves and monitors nurse aide training and competency evaluation programs throughout Minnesota.' WHO RUNS IT: the Minnesota Department of Health, directly — the registry lives on an MDH web address, MDH staff review every renewal and endorsement application, and MDH publishes the tutorials for using it. The statute assigns the job to the commissioner of health: 'The commissioner of health, in consultation with the commissioner of human services, shall implement the provisions of Public Law 100-203, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987, that relate to training and competency evaluation programs, testing, and the establishment of a registry for nursing assistants in nursing homes and boarding care homes certified for participation in the medical assistance or Medicare programs' (Minn. Stat. 144A.61, subd. 1). That subdivision also contains a delegation Minnesota has NOT used: 'At the request of the commissioner, the Board of Nursing may establish training and competency evaluation standards; review, evaluate, and approve curricula; review and approve training programs; and establish a registry of nursing assistants.' No Minnesota source read on 2026-08-16 shows the Board of Nursing running any part of the nurse aide scheme. WHAT IS CONTRACTED OUT IS THE TEST, NOT THE REGISTRY: 'MDH selected D&SDT-Headmaster as the test contractor for placement on the Minnesota Nurse Aide Registry.'
The three routes onto the registry: MDH publishes three qualifying conditions and treats any one of them as enough: 'Successfully complete an approved nursing assistant training and competency evaluation program in Minnesota. or Successfully pass the Minnesota approved competency test for nursing assistants. or Currently be in good standing on the nursing assistant registry in another state and have worked a minimum of 8 hours as a nursing assistant in that state in the past 24 months.' Placement is automatic on the first two: 'Nursing assistants who successfully complete an approved nursing assistant training and competency evaluation program or pass the competency test for nursing assistants will automatically be added to the registry.'
Training program — what MDH approves: 'An approved nurse aide training and competency evaluation program must be at least 75 clock-hours in length. Training includes 16 hours of supervised practical training with a live person in a laboratory or other setting and curriculum instruction/skills totaling 75 hours' (MDH, How to Start a NATCEP). Programs must adopt one of the curricula on MDH's approved list, and several of those carry a 'Train the Trainer' requirement. INSTRUCTOR QUALIFICATIONS MDH publishes: a Minnesota RN with at least two years of licensed nursing experience in the US, at least one year of it 'in the provision of long-term care facility services in the US'; earlier experience may have been as an LPN but the instructor must currently be an RN; and 'Licensed nursing experience does not include nurse aide experience.' A nursing-home-operated program is barred for two years after certain enforcement events: programs 'cannot have had an extended or partial extended survey, operated with a waiver of the 8 hour-per-day registered nurse requirement, been assessed a civil money penalty, or had a denial of payment enforced within past two (2) years,' though a waiver request may be an option. MDH notes 'Federal law allows up to 90 days for approval of a completed application.'
The four-month rule for people already hired: Minnesota lets a facility hire an untrained person and train them on the clock, but the deadline is statutory: 'Each nursing assistant hired to work in a nursing home or in a certified boarding care home on or after January 1, 1990, must have successfully completed an approved competency evaluation prior to employment or an approved nursing assistant training program and competency evaluation within four months from the date of employment' (Minn. Stat. 144A.61, subd. 6a). MDH restates it operationally: 'An individual not on the Registry can be hired as a nursing aide if they are immediately enrolled in an approved nursing aide training course at the time of hire, complete the course and competency test and get on the Minnesota Registry within four (4) months. The nursing home or certified boarding care home must assure that the person is competent to provide cares to residents.' TWO LIMITS on that window: 'Persons working for a temporary agency must be on the Registry before they are eligible to work in a nursing home or certified boarding care home,' and a student who abandons or fails the program loses the floor — MDH's NATCEP FAQ answers it flatly: 'No. They may continue working; however, they must be assigned to a different department (example: laundry, housekeeping). They may not work as a nurse aide until they have passed both the knowledge and skills portions of the test.' A student who has completed training and merely failed a test attempt is treated differently: 'the nurse aide student may continue to work and provide direct resident care as long as the facility has deemed them safe and competent until they have exhausted all test attempts and/or they have reached the four-month mark.'
Testing deadline after training: 'You must schedule a test within 24 months of your training program completion. After 24 months, you must complete another MDH-approved training program to be eligible to schedule testing or choose to schedule as a test-out or challenge candidate' (state-linked Minnesota Nurse Aide Candidate Handbook). MDH publishes the same 24-month cycle with the attempt limits attached, and a rule most summaries miss: 'Candidates CANNOT use previous successful test results for the new testing cycle. When a new training program is completed, this will void all past training and testing attempts.'
Background studies: The nurse aide registry is not where background checks live. The state-linked candidate handbook says so and routes the question elsewhere: 'The registry does not maintain records of background checks. If you have questions about a background check, contact the Department of Human Services, Background Studies and Investigation Section, at (651) 431-6620.' What the registry does hold is maltreatment findings — see exemptions and verification_portal.
Who may not be listed — maltreatment findings: 'Complaints about a nurse aide must be called into the Office of Health Facility Complaints (OHFC) at 651-201-4201 or 1-800-369-7994. An investigation must be completed before a finding can be substantiated and entered onto the registry.' The consequence is absolute: 'If there is a finding of maltreatment on the registry, the nurse aide is prohibited from working in a nursing home or certified boarding care home' (MDH). The public lookup shows it — 'If a person has a finding of maltreatment on the registry, the online verification system will not print a document when clicking on the certificate number. The search page will indicate substantiated finding(s) of maltreatment.'

Legal basis

Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), Health Regulation Division — Nurse Aide Registry. MDH operates the registry itself; the competency examination is run by a contractor MDH selected: ‘MDH selected D&SDT-Headmaster as the test contractor for placement on the Minnesota Nurse Aide Registry. Testing on the Headmaster platform began on Feb. 1, 2022.’ The authority to contract is statutory — ‘The commissioner of health may contract with outside parties for the purpose of implementing the provisions of this section’ (Minn. Stat. 144A.61, subd. 1). administers certified nursing assistant licensing in Minnesota. Every figure below is verified against the board’s own official pages and dated. Who must personally hold a credential — the contractor, the business, or the individual worker — is set out under Requirements.

What it’s called

MINNESOTA USES TWO NOUNS FOR THE SAME PERSON, AND BOTH ARE OFFICIAL. The statute says NURSING ASSISTANT — Minn. Stat. 144A.61 is titled ‘NURSING ASSISTANT TRAINING’ and defines ’nursing assistant’ at subd. 2 — and MDH’s own web path is /nursingassistant/, while every current MDH heading and the state-linked handbook say NURSE AIDE (‘Nurse Aide Registry’, ‘Who Can Work as a Nurse Aide?’, ‘Minnesota Nurse Aide Candidate Handbook’). Older MDH pages still carry the older headings, e.g. ‘How to Get on the Nursing Assistant Registry.’ CNA IS THE PUBLIC TERM AND MINNESOTA USES IT TOO, but never as the name of a licence: MDH’s testing FAQ writes about ’the job of a CNA’, the registry system’s registrant type is ‘Certified Nurse Aide’, and the contractor’s Minnesota page offers ‘Certified Nurse Aide Testing Services’. WHAT MINNESOTA DOES NOT ISSUE IS A LICENCE — ‘Minnesota CNA license’ is a folk term; the state lists you on a registry and gives you ‘a unique certificate number’ with an expiration date, and the registry record, not a wall certificate, is the credential. Three other Minnesota names to keep apart: TEST-OUT or CHALLENGE CANDIDATE (someone testing without a Minnesota training program — the registry search result even shows ‘Whether the nurse aide is a test-out candidate’); INTERSTATE ENDORSEMENT CANDIDATE (the registrant type for someone transferring in from another state’s registry); and TRAINED MEDICATION AIDE, a separate Minnesota credential governed by Minnesota Rules part 4658.1360 and by Minn. Stat. 144A.61, subds. 3b and 3c, which this record does not cover. NATCEP — ‘Nurse Aide Training and Competency Evaluation Program’ — is the name of the school, not of the worker.

License types & fees

Type	Notes	Who Its For
Listing on the Minnesota Nurse Aide Registry — training-program route	There is no application to file and nothing to pay: 'Nursing assistants who successfully complete an approved nursing assistant training and competency evaluation program or pass the competency test for nursing assistants will automatically be added to the registry' (MDH). What you receive is an identifier and a status rather than a board licence — 'Minnesota issues to each nursing assistant a unique certificate number' (MDH), and the registry record carries a certificate number and an expiration date.	A person who completes an MDH-approved nurse aide training and competency evaluation program (NATCEP) in Minnesota and passes both parts of the Minnesota competency exam.
Listing on the registry — test-out / challenge route (no training program)	MDH's own requirement list allows registry placement by 'Successfully pass the Minnesota approved competency test for nursing assistants' alone. The trade-off is that the four-month grace window does not apply: 'Persons opting to challenge the test without having taken an approved nursing aide training program may not work as a nurse aide until they have passed both the knowledge and skills portions of the test. They do not have 4 months to get on the Registry if they challenge the test without completing a nursing aide training course' (MDH). A challenge candidate must contact a test site directly to be entered for testing.	A person who has not completed a Minnesota-approved training program — the state-linked candidate handbook names the examples: 'If you trained in another country. If you have not taken a nurse aide training program. If you have not worked as a nurse aide in the last 24 months.'
Listing on the registry — interstate endorsement	MDH's requirement list: 'Currently be in good standing on the nursing assistant registry in another state and have worked a minimum of 8 hours as a nursing assistant in that state in the past 24 months.' The statute is the stronger authority: 'The commissioner of health shall approve a nursing assistant for the registry without requiring a competency evaluation if the nursing assistant is in good standing on a nursing assistant registry in another state' (Minn. Stat. 144A.61, subd. 3a(c)). MDH charges nothing — 'There is NO PROCESSING FEE for the Minnesota Registry.' You must be listed in Minnesota before working here: 'If you are transferring to Minnesota from another state, you must be on the Minnesota nursing assistant registry before you can work as a nursing assistant in Minnesota.'	A nurse aide currently in good standing on another state's registry who has worked at least 8 hours as a nursing assistant in that state in the past 24 months.
Trained Medication Aide (TMA) — a separate Minnesota credential, not covered by this record	Minn. Stat. 144A.61, subd. 3b requires the commissioner of health to 'review and approve curricula that meet the requirements in Minnesota Rules, part 4658.1360, subpart 2, item B, to train unlicensed personnel in medication administration,' and subd. 3c requires MDH to publish a current list of acceptable medication administration curricula. MDH's Nurse Aide Registry landing page separately lists 'Curriculum Approval for Medication Training Programs' and 'Nursing Home Change of Ownership and Trained Medication Aide Rulemaking.' This record documents the NURSE AIDE credential only.	Named here only because Minnesota governs medication administration by unlicensed personnel in the same statute and rule family, and the public conflates it with the nurse aide credential.

Who does NOT need this license — exemptions

MINNESOTA’S CARVE-OUTS ARE NARROW, AND TWO OF THEM ARE IN THE STATUTE ITSELF. (1) LICENSED HEALTH PROFESSIONALS ARE OUTSIDE THE DEFINITION — ’nursing assistant’ means ‘a nursing home or certified boarding care home employee, including a nurse’s aide or an orderly, who is assigned by the director of nursing to provide or assist in the provision of nursing or nursing-related services under the supervision of a registered nurse. “Nursing assistant” includes nursing assistants employed by nursing pool companies but does not include a licensed health professional’ (Minn. Stat. 144A.61, subd. 2). Note what that sentence does in both directions: agency and nursing-pool staff are squarely covered. (2) A RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION APPLIES TO WHOLE FACILITIES — ‘Employees of nursing homes conducted in accordance with the teachings of the body known as the Church of Christ, Scientist, shall be exempt from the requirements of this section and section 144A.611’ (subd. 8). (3) THE FOUR-MONTH HIRING WINDOW is a timing exemption rather than a permanent one: a nursing assistant hired on or after January 1, 1990 must complete an approved competency evaluation before employment or an approved training program and competency evaluation ‘within four months from the date of employment’ (subd. 6a), and MDH requires the facility to ‘assure that the person is competent to provide cares to residents’ during it. THE WINDOW DOES NOT REACH EVERYONE: ‘Persons working for a temporary agency must be on the Registry before they are eligible to work in a nursing home or certified boarding care home,’ and ‘Persons opting to challenge the test without having taken an approved nursing aide training program may not work as a nurse aide until they have passed both the knowledge and skills portions of the test.’ (4) A DOCUMENTED-BUT-NOT-YET-LISTED AIDE may work in the gap: MDH allows ‘A person who can prove completion of a nursing aide training and competency evaluation program or competency evaluation program approved by Minnesota but is not yet on the Registry,’ where ‘Persons may provide test scores that demonstrate that they have passed both the knowledge and skills test. The facility will make the determination if this is acceptable and must verify placement on the Registry.’ SCOPE BOUNDARY — the Minnesota registry requirement is written around NURSING HOMES AND CERTIFIED BOARDING CARE HOMES, which is where the statute, the penalty and MDH’s own descriptions all point; Minn. Stat. 144A.61, subd. 7 backs it with a facility-side penalty rather than an individual one: a violation ‘shall be grounds for the issuance of a correction order,’ and failure to comply with the correction order ‘shall result in the assessment of a fine in the amount of $300.’ No Minnesota source read on 2026-08-16 states a registry requirement for nurse aide work outside those settings, and this record therefore claims none.

Fees

MINNESOTA CHARGES NOTHING FOR THE REGISTRY ITSELF. MDH states it in capitals on its own page: ‘There is NO PROCESSING FEE for the Minnesota Registry.’ That is not a Minnesota courtesy — the federal rule the registry is built on forbids it: ‘The State may not impose any charges related to registration on individuals listed in the registry’ (42 C.F.R. 483.156(b)(4)). No fee appears for initial listing, renewal or interstate endorsement in Minn. Stat. 144A.61, in Minn. Stat. 144A.611, on any MDH nurse aide page, or in the MDH registry tutorials, all read on 2026-08-16. WHAT DOES COST MONEY IS THE TEST, AND THE PRICE DEPENDS ON WHICH TESTING SERVER YOU ARE IN. For the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities server the state publishes no figure and routes the question to the site: ‘For information on testing fee payments, please contact the test site where you want to schedule your test.’ For the in-facility server MDH publishes the candidate price and the underlying service prices: ‘Knowledge Test Price – $60’ and ‘Skills Test Price – $100,’ charged to ‘All in-facility testing students’ alike; the per-service prices behind them are ‘$23 per Knowledge Test administered by facility Knowledge Test Proctor (KTP)’, ‘$60 for virtual Knowledge Test if administering the Skills Test only, or if using a KTP from the statewide pool’, ‘$40 per Skills Test administered using facility test site, certified RN, and Actor’, ‘$70 per Skills Test if using test site, certified RN and Actor with oversight and interrater reliability reporting’ and ‘$100 per Skills Test if using a certified RN and Actor from the statewide pool.’ MDH disclaims control of the number: ‘These costs may be altered over time to ensure testing costs are covered. The Minnesota Department of Health does not determine cost, nor will the Minnesota Department of Health be involved in any cost adjustments.’ TUITION IS ALSO NOT A STATE PRICE: ‘The cost of training and testing varies by training sites. Please contact the training site for the cost of their training and testing programs.’ TWO MINNESOTA RULES THAT CAN MAKE THE WHOLE THING FREE. First, a prohibition: ‘A Nurse Aide who is employed by or has received an offer of employment from a certified nursing home or boarding care home as a Nurse Aide prior to beginning a Nurse Aide Training and Competency Evaluation Program (NATCEP) may not be charged for any portion of the training program and the competence evaluation.’ Second, a reimbursement right with a statutory deadline: a nursing assistant who completes an approved program or evaluation ‘shall be reimbursed by the nursing home or certified boarding care home for actual costs of tuition and textbooks and reasonable expenses for the competency evaluation or the training program and competency evaluation 90 days after the date of employment, or upon completion of the approved training program, whichever is later’ (Minn. Stat. 144A.611, subd. 2(a)). MDH puts the clock on the aide too: ‘The Nurse Aide has one (1) year from passing the test and placement on the Registry to turn in receipts requesting reimbursement. The facility has 90 days to reimburse the Nurse Aide. If the Nurse Aide does not remain employed as a Nurse Aide for 90 days, the nursing home is under no obligation to reimburse the Nurse Aide.’ Only certified nursing homes or boarding care homes owe the reimbursement.

Exam

TWO PARTS, BOTH REQUIRED: a computer-delivered knowledge test and an observed skill test. The state-linked candidate handbook states the consequence: ‘The examination has two parts: a multiple-choice knowledge test and a skill test. Candidates must pass both parts to be identified and listed on the Minnesota Nurse Aide Registry.’ KNOWLEDGE TEST — ‘You will have two hours to complete the 70-question exam’ and ‘You must have a score of 74% or better to pass the knowledge portion of the exam.’ MDH publishes the same figure as a raw count: ‘There are 70 questions on the test. As of August 5, 2024, candidates must answer 52 questions correctly to obtain a passing score of 74% on the knowledge test.’ The handbook publishes the subject-area blueprint question by question: Basic Nursing Skills 15, Infection Control 8, Safety 8, Care Impaired 6, Resident Rights 5, Role and Responsibility 5, Aging Process and Restorative Care 4, Communication 4, Data Collection 4, Disease Process 4, Personal Care 4, Mental Health 3. MDH also publishes the reading level: ‘between 5.1 to 5.7 on the Flesch-Kincaid reading level scale, meaning a less than 6th grade reading level.’ LANGUAGES — ‘In addition to English, the Knowledge Exam is only offered in the following alternate languages: Spanish, Somali, Hmong,’ a choice MDH ties to statute: ‘Minnesota Statutes, section 144A.61, subdivision 3a identifies “commonly spoken” languages… Additional languages may be added in the future.’ The handbook itself remains English-only. SKILL TEST — the first task is drawn from a fixed mandatory set with hand washing built in (‘Assist a Resident with the use of a Bedpan, Measure and Record Urine Output, and Hand Washing’; ‘Catheter Care for a Female Resident and Hand Washing (demonstrated on a manikin)’; a Don PPE / empty urinary drainage bag / Doff PPE sequence; or ‘Perineal Care for a Female Resident and Hand Washing (demonstrated on a manikin)’), and then ‘You will also receive an additional two or three randomly selected tasks from the Skill Task listing.’ Tasks are performed on a live resident actor except catheter care and perineal care, which use a manikin, and an RN Test Observer records what the candidate does while ‘D&SDT-HEADMASTER scoring teams will officially score and double-check your test.’ ATTEMPTS — ‘You have four (4) attempts to pass the knowledge exam and three (3) attempts to pass the skills exam’ within 24 months of training completion or of the first attempt as a challenge candidate; ‘If you have exhausted your knowledge OR skill attempts prior to the 24-month cycle ending, you MUST complete another MDH-approved training program BEFORE you are eligible to re-test.’ TEST-DAY RULES worth knowing before you pay: candidates must arrive 20 minutes early (‘If you arrive late, you will not be permitted to take the test’), must be in full scrubs and closed-toe shoes with long hair tied back, and must present an original, signed, non-expired US government-issued photo ID — ‘Photocopies, faxes, images, or mobile or electronic/digital versions (for example, Apple or Google Wallet) of IDs are not allowed.’ MDH adds a cheating penalty: ‘Candidates who have cheated on either the knowledge or skills exam will be exempt from any testing opportunities for 45 calendar days.’

Renewal & continuing education

EVERY 24 MONTHS, AND THE TEST IS PAID WORK — NOT EDUCATION AND NOT A FEE. The state-linked candidate handbook states the standing condition: ‘To stay on the registry as a nurse aide: You must work at least 8 hours as a paid nursing assistant every 24 months. (A 24-month lapse of employment will result in an expired registry status.) You must provide a copy of a recent pay stub from your employer. If you are not working in a nursing home or an assisted living facility, you must provide a job description to show that you are providing assistance with the activities of daily living.’ RENEWAL IS FILED IN MDH’S OWN REGISTRY SYSTEM, and MDH notifies you first: ‘You have received an email and text notification from MDH to renew your certificate.’ The application asks for ‘your employment history for the past 24 months’ and requires you to ‘Upload the most recent pay stub (PDF only) that provides documentation to verify nursing or nursing-related services were performed for monetary compensation for at least one documented day (e.g., 8 consecutive hours) during the previous 24 months.’ WHAT COUNTS AND WHAT DOES NOT: ‘Providing assistance with activities of daily living (ADL) care is an allowed service. Orientation, training, or in-service hours are not allowed.’ You may also be asked to upload a job description listing the specific direct care services performed. The filing is signed electronically by typing your full name. PROCESSING: ‘Please allow up to 30 business days for MDH to complete their review.’ THE THREE OUTCOMES ARE NOT TWO — MDH publishes a middle one that catches people out: ‘Approved: the application was approved, and you are active on the registry. Processed: the application was approved; however, you remain inactive on the registry. This may be due to submitted employment information that could not bring your certificate to an active status. Denied: the application was denied.’ Corrections are handled inside the system: if MDH needs something, it messages you through the registry dashboard and you resubmit. NONE FOR THE REGISTRY. The state-linked candidate handbook is explicit that continuing education is not a registry condition and that the training duty runs to the employer instead: ‘There is no requirement to submit in-service documentation related to the Nursing Assistant Registry. Nursing and boarding care homes must comply with state and federal regulations regarding in-service training.’ Nothing in Minn. Stat. 144A.61 or 144A.611 imposes continuing education on a nursing assistant, and MDH’s renewal application asks only for employment history and a pay stub — it has no education field, and MDH’s instructions state the opposite for in-service time, which does not even count as qualifying work: ‘Orientation, training, or in-service hours are not allowed.’ Tiers searched on 2026-08-16: Minn. Stat. 144A.61 and 144A.611 in full, MDH’s Nurse Aide Registry landing page, its Who Can Work, Get on the Registry, Training and Testing, Testing Information, NATCEP FAQ, Curricula and Contact pages, the MDH renewal and interstate-endorsement tutorials, and the Minnesota Nurse Aide Candidate Handbook (version 8.0, updated June 11, 2026).

How to apply

Applications are handled by Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), Health Regulation Division — Nurse Aide Registry. MDH operates the registry itself; the competency examination is run by a contractor MDH selected: ‘MDH selected D&SDT-Headmaster as the test contractor for placement on the Minnesota Nurse Aide Registry. Testing on the Headmaster platform began on Feb. 1, 2022.’ The authority to contract is statutory — ‘The commissioner of health may contract with outside parties for the purpose of implementing the provisions of this section’ (Minn. Stat. 144A.61, subd. 1).. Start at the official application page .

Verify a license in Minnesota

Minnesota Department of Health, Nurse Aide Registry publishes a public license search , searchable by certificate number or first name + last name + last four digits of Social Security number. It covers Minnesota nurse aide registry records. MDH publishes both the inputs and the outputs. Inputs: ‘You can search by one of the following: Certificate number, or Last name, first name, and last 4 digits of social security number.’ Outputs, from MDH’s own tutorial: ‘Registry status of the nurse aide; Any substantiated complaints; Dates they were active on the registry; Training and testing dates; Whether the nurse aide is a test-out candidate.’ A maltreatment finding changes what the tool will do: ‘If a person has a finding of maltreatment on the registry, the online verification system will not print a document when clicking on the certificate number. The search page will indicate substantiated finding(s) of maltreatment.’ A LIMITATION READERS SHOULD KNOW: the search page is a browser application — an automated reader is served only the page framework, and both the search form and every result are drawn by the browser after the page loads, so no result can be linked to and an automated check cannot confirm a record. Verification therefore has to be done by a person in a browser, or by calling the registry at 651-201-4200 or 800-397-6124 (Minnesota only).

Records come from Minnesota Department of Health, Nurse Aide Registry’s own system. LicensingAtlas does not hold license records and cannot confirm any individual’s status — the date on this page refers to the requirements described above, not to anyone’s credential.

Frequently asked questions

Does Minnesota issue a CNA license?

No. Minnesota lists you on the Nurse Aide Registry and gives you a certificate number — ‘Minnesota issues to each nursing assistant a unique certificate number’ — and the registry entry, with its status and expiration date, is the credential. There is no board licence and no licence card. The Minnesota Department of Health runs the registry itself; only the competency examination is contracted out, to D&S Diversified Technologies (D&SDT)-Headmaster, which MDH ‘selected… as the test contractor for placement on the Minnesota Nurse Aide Registry.’

How many training hours does Minnesota require for a CNA?

75 clock hours, with at least 16 of them supervised practical training on a live person. MDH states it directly: ‘An approved nurse aide training and competency evaluation program must be at least 75 clock-hours in length. Training includes 16 hours of supervised practical training with a live person in a laboratory or other setting and curriculum instruction/skills totaling 75 hours.’ MDH repeats the same 75/16 split against every curriculum on its approved list. Two counting rules catch people out: self-study does not count toward the 75 hours unless it is tracked in a learning management system, and lab skills practice does not count toward the 16 supervised practical hours — those must be recorded separately.

What does it cost to get on the Minnesota nurse aide registry?

The registry itself is free: ‘There is NO PROCESSING FEE for the Minnesota Registry.’ Federal rule requires that — ‘The State may not impose any charges related to registration on individuals listed in the registry.’ What costs money is testing, and the price depends on where you test. For in-facility test sites MDH publishes ‘Knowledge Test Price – $60’ and ‘Skills Test Price – $100’; for Minnesota State Colleges and Universities sites MDH publishes no figure and says to ‘contact the test site where you want to schedule your test.’ Training tuition also varies by site. If a certified nursing home or boarding care home employed you or offered you a job before you started the program, it may not charge you at all, and if you paid yourself you are entitled to reimbursement — you have one year from passing the test to submit receipts, and the facility has 90 days to pay.

What is on the Minnesota nurse aide exam?

Two parts, and you must pass both to be listed. The knowledge test is 70 multiple-choice questions in two hours, and ‘You must have a score of 74% or better to pass’ — MDH puts it as 52 correct answers out of 70 as of August 5, 2024. It is offered in English, Spanish, Somali and Hmong. The skill test starts with one mandatory task that has hand washing built into it (bedpan and urine output, catheter care on a manikin, a PPE and urinary drainage bag sequence, or perineal care on a manikin) and then adds ’two or three randomly selected tasks’, performed on a live resident actor except for the two manikin tasks. An RN Test Observer records what you do and the contractor’s scoring team scores it.

How many times can you take the Minnesota CNA test?

Four attempts at the knowledge test and three at the skills test, and they all sit inside one 24-month clock that starts at your training completion date or, for a challenge candidate, at your first attempt. ‘If you have exhausted your knowledge OR skill attempts prior to the 24-month cycle ending, you MUST complete another MDH-approved training program BEFORE you are eligible to re-test.’ If the 24 months run out without your using all attempts, you can either complete a new training program or test as a challenge candidate — but note the trap MDH publishes: ‘Candidates CANNOT use previous successful test results for the new testing cycle. When a new training program is completed, this will void all past training and testing attempts.’

How do you renew a Minnesota nurse aide certificate?

Every 24 months, by filing a renewal application in MDH’s registry system — there is no fee and no continuing education. What you must show is paid work: ‘You must work at least 8 hours as a paid nursing assistant every 24 months’, evidenced by a recent pay stub, and if you are not working in a nursing home or assisted living facility you must also upload a job description showing you provide assistance with activities of daily living. Orientation, training and in-service hours do not count. Allow up to 30 business days for MDH review, and watch the outcome: ‘Approved’ means you are active, but ‘Processed’ means the application was accepted and you are still inactive because the employment information could not bring your certificate to active status.

Does Minnesota require continuing education for nurse aides?

No. The state-linked candidate handbook is explicit: ‘There is no requirement to submit in-service documentation related to the Nursing Assistant Registry. Nursing and boarding care homes must comply with state and federal regulations regarding in-service training.’ The in-service obligation is the facility’s, not yours — and in-service hours do not even count as the paid work that keeps your registry status active.

What happens if a Minnesota nurse aide certificate expires?

Twenty-four consecutive months without paid nursing work ends active status: ‘A 24-month lapse of employment will result in an expired registry status.’ Getting back means testing again, both parts. A person who can prove they previously completed a Minnesota-approved program and passed both exams, and whose registry status is expired, is eligible to retake the knowledge and skills exams; someone who cannot show that re-enters as a test-out or challenge candidate and takes both parts too. The federal rule behind this requires states to remove entries after 24 consecutive months without nursing or nursing-related services — except where the entry carries a documented maltreatment finding, which stays permanently.

Can you transfer a CNA certificate from another state to Minnesota?

Yes, through interstate endorsement, and Minnesota charges nothing for it. The statute makes approval mandatory rather than discretionary: ‘The commissioner of health shall approve a nursing assistant for the registry without requiring a competency evaluation if the nursing assistant is in good standing on a nursing assistant registry in another state.’ MDH adds a recency condition — you must have worked at least 8 hours as a nursing assistant in that state in the past 24 months — and the application cannot be filed if you have neither worked nor tested there in that window. You must be on the Minnesota registry before you start work here, and MDH asks for 30 business days to review. One caution: MDH’s interstate tutorial closes with the line ‘If you wish to work as a nurse aide in Minnesota, you must pass the Minnesota knowledge test and skills test’, which reads against the statute and against MDH’s own requirements page. Confirm with the Nurse Aide Registry which applies to you before booking a test.

Can you work as a nurse aide in Minnesota before you are on the registry?

Sometimes, and the exception is narrow. A nursing home or certified boarding care home may hire an individual who is not on the registry ‘if they are immediately enrolled in an approved nursing aide training course at the time of hire, complete the course and competency test and get on the Minnesota Registry within four (4) months’ — a deadline that is in the statute as well. Three limits: someone working through a temporary agency ‘must be on the Registry before they are eligible to work’; someone who challenges the test without taking an approved training program gets no four-month window at all and cannot work as an aide until they have passed both parts; and a student who drops or fails the program must be moved to another department, such as laundry or housekeeping, rather than kept on the floor.

See every license and certification LicensingAtlas covers in Minnesota.

Sources & verification

Last verified against these sources: August 16, 2026.

We re-fetch every cited source on a weekly schedule: see what changed at the agencies, or every correction we have ever made.

LicensingAtlas states licensing and certification requirements categorically from official sources. It is a reference, not legal or career advice, and requirements change frequently — confirm details with the issuing board before you act.